EDGE FGT: MUSH-IT: MUlti-Species Hemimetabolous Insect Tools

地球上的大多数动物都是昆虫，研究它们对于了解地球上生命的进化至关重要。它们是唯一在空气、土地和水中定居的动物。弄清楚昆虫身体如何在如此多样化的环境中发挥作用，导致了新的机器人设计的产生，产生了可以飞行，游泳或在崎岖地形上爬行的机器人。昆虫对人类健康也至关重要，因为它们是主要的植物授粉者，因此对提供人类食物的农业活动至关重要。与所有动物一样，昆虫的体型和行为在很大程度上受其基因控制，因此昆虫遗传学的研究具有高度优先性。尽管它们的重要性显而易见，但我们在实验室中研究昆虫真实多样性的能力受到了严重限制，因为还没有开发出了解绝大多数昆虫基因功能的方法。在这项提案中，我们将开发新的方法来了解来自五个不同昆虫群体的昆虫基因序列和功能。我们将生成新的基因组序列，改进和简化在受控实验室环境中饲养这些昆虫的方法，并改进现有方法或开发新方法来干扰基因功能，以了解基因如何调节昆虫生物学。我们将通过视频协议、互动Slack小组以及现场直播研讨会的形式，与全球昆虫科学家社区分享我们的发现和新方法。昆虫自5亿多年前首次出现在地球上以来，一直主导着动物的多样性。对昆虫的研究导致了所有科学领域的突破性发现。尽管如此，这些昆虫的19个主要类群（目）中只有两个包含具有强大功能遗传学技术的模型实验室物种，这些技术在最初开发它们的实验室之外使用。这一差距将通过产生新的多物种半变态昆虫工具（MUSH-IT）的物种从五个半变态昆虫订单来解决。首先，蟋蟀双斑蟋蟀将发展成为一种高度复杂的半代谢昆虫，用于功能基因组学。其次，来自另外四个半变态目的物种将被开发成功能遗传学的实验室模式生物，为研究人员提供更广泛的昆虫基础研究系统的系统发育范围。将举行年度研讨会，以帮助研究人员与半代谢学习，故障排除，适应和开发新的方法来控制基因功能，在这个关键的分支昆虫。该项目将加强现有的研究和教育基础设施，在许多科学领域使用昆虫作为研究系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Most animals on earth are insects, and studying them is essential to understand the evolution of life on Earth. They are the only animals that colonize habits in air, land and water. Figuring out how insect bodies can function in such diverse environments has led to the creation of new robotic designs, generating robots that can fly, swim, or crawl over rough terrain. Insects are also essential to human health because they are major plant pollinators, and thus crucial for the agricultural activity that provides human food. As for all animals, the body shapes and behaviors of insects are largely governed by their genes, making the study of insect genetics a high priority. Despite their obvious importance, our ability to study the true diversity of insects in the laboratory has been severely limited by the fact that no methods have been developed to understand the function of genes in the vast majority of insects. In this proposal, we will develop new methods for learning about the sequences and functions of genes in insects from five different major insect groups. We will generate new genome sequences, improve and streamline methods for rearing these insects in controlled laboratory environments, and improve on existing methods or develop new ones to interfere with gene functions to understand how genes regulate insect biology. We will share our findings and new methods with the global community of insect scientists in the form of video protocols, an interactive Slack group, and in-person and livestreamed workshops.Insects have dominated animal diversity since their first appearance on Earth over 500 million years ago. Studying insects has led to ground-breaking discoveries across all fields of science. Despite this, only two of the 19 major groups (orders) of these insects contain model laboratory species with robust functional genetics techniques that are used outside of the laboratories that initially developed them. This gap will be addressed by generating novel MUlti-Species Hemimetabolous Insect Tools (MUSH-IT) for species from five hemimetabolous insect orders. First, the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus will be developed into a highly sophisticated hemimetabolous insect for functional genomics. Second, species from four additional hemimetabolous orders will be developed into laboratory model organisms for functional genetics, providing researchers with a broader phylogenetic range of study systems across the base of insects. Annual workshops will be held to help researchers working with Hemimetabola learn, troubleshoot, adapt and develop new methods for control of gene function in this critical branch of insects. This project will enhance existing infrastructure for research and education across the many fields of science that use insects as study systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.